Felix Chow is a first-year MPhil candidate in the School of English, whose project is an attempt at negotiating contemporary Hong Kong poetics. Apart from his work as a graduate researcher, Felix is a prolific presence on the Hong Kong poetry scene, where he assists in co-organising the monthly poetry event “OutLoud” alongside publishing poetry. You may find his latest work in WHERE ELSE: An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology (Verve Poetry Press, 2023), among others. 

  •  Tell us about your work in the School of English.

Hi! Right now, I’m a first-year MPhil student and teaching assistant in the School of English. My project is on the poetics of contemporary Hong Kong poetry in English, so I was more than excited to be a TA for “Poetry Past and Present”, an undergraduate course offered by the School of English, last semester. I also did my undergraduate degree in the School, so it’s quite interesting (and surreal) to be back!

  • How does your creative writing inform your work as a researcher?

Right now, I’m more of a community organizer than a creative writer. But as with all roles related to the arts, these identities are quite hard to separate from one another.

Yes, the writing process definitely generates questions and observations that affect the direction of my research. For example, writing about spaces in Hong Kong spurs me on to read more into the affective connections citizens might have towards said spaces, as well as how community-building takes place within them.

Another question I am curious about is the matter of codeswitching and translanguaging in poetry. My writing, which involves Hong Kong English and Cantonese, has inspired me to read more about Asian-American and postcolonial poetry that engages in a similar politics of appropriation and abrogation.I feel the intended audiences for my creative and academic work are very different, and that difference also creates an awareness of the limitations of academic writing and research. For one, writing events, workshops and publications are infinitely more accessible to the general public than, say, an academic article. I think this awareness influences the way I write for my project, to keep it in a register that is engaging and easily understandable.

  • How did you get your start in writing and publishing poetry?

I’ve had an interest in poetry since the age of 16, when I watched a movie called “Kill Your Darlings”, based on the lives of the Beat Generation poets. I took the initiative to join the “Hong Kong Budding Poets Competition”, organized by the Education Bureau. Funnily enough, for my DSE English Exams (the Hong Kong university entrance exam), I chose a writing question about applying for a poetry scholarship, so that was a perfect coincidence!

However, I did not start writing a lot until I got into HKU. I didn’t really know how to “get into” poetry and the poetry I did read was from the internet. This, coupled with the fact that the DSE English curriculum offers basically zero exposure to literature, meant that I never really had the courage to show my writing to people or turn up at literary events alone.

I guess the actual “start” was when Professor Nicholas Luke, also from the School of English, mentioned a Shakespeare-themed Poetry OutLoud event in class and I went with a friend. I started attending more of these events at the start of the 2019 Anti-ELAB movement, and upon suggestion and encouragement from Dr. Tammy Ho, started submitting poems to local publications like “Asian Cha” and “Voice and Verse”. 

  • In your poems, you write in Kongish (Hong Kong English). What draws you to writing in Kongish?

I enjoy writing in Kongish because it’s the way through which a lot of Hongkongers, especially post-80s Hongkongers, speak in daily life. Not just privileged, fluently bilingual university students but also, I argue, a large section of the population that has had the opportunity to have some form of English-language education.

It might be conducive to first discuss what Kongish can be understood as. Initially, Kongish was understood as a regional version of English, grouped alongside other emerging world Englishes. Scholars such as Nick Wong and Tong Kin Lee offer a different understanding of Kongish, noting it is not a language per se, but instead, a form of translanguaging-in-action. Instead of simply encompassing languages (e.g. English/Hong Kong English/Cantonese), this mode of communication also draws upon the full range of semiotic resources Hongkongers take in and use in daily life. This includes numbers (1999, 520, sor9ly), symbols (orz) and translingual elements that do not strictly belong to one language or another, even if they may be based on transliteration or romanization (no eye see, see see first, eat mud)

I believe Kongish is a mode of communication that is unique to each person and shaped by their degree of education and exposure to popular culture references, but nevertheless possesses mutual intelligibility amongst speakers. The Kongish I use in writing draws more heavily upon English than Cantonese, written Chinese or other semiotic modes. The Kongish that, say, popular singers and rappers like Gareth T and Tomfatki use, is perhaps a more even blend. The Kongish used as a means of daily communication often draws more upon Cantonese.

With this in mind, I write in Kongish because I think it is the best way to write about and write to a Hong Kong audience. With all the discussions about Hong Kong’s identity and culture, I also believe it is increasingly important to produce works in Kongish. Why would I want to churn out another form poem written in sophisticated, standard English? I want readers, when they read my poems, to understand they were written by a Hongkonger.

  • You are one of the poets featured in an upcoming anthology of Hong Kong poetry titled WHERE ELSE: An International Hong Kong Poetry Anthology (Verve Poetry Press, 2023). Could you tell us more about your role in the publication? 

I’m one contributor out of many. The anthology is an international anthology edited by Jennifer Wong, Jason Lee and Cheng Tim Tim, all active members in the Hong Kong Anglophone writing scene. The editors have done a lot to bring people around the globe, those who share a connection with Hong Kong, together. As Jason likes saying, never has a Hong Kong anthology been achieved on such a scale, so I’m quite happy and curious about the project too.

  • What are the major themes in your work? 

A key theme in most of my writing is politics. I started writing during 2019, and like a large section of Hongkongers, will forever carry the experiences of that year in me. As such, some of my poems are influenced by ideas like localism and the negotiation of Hong Kong identity. I also discuss themes like class and opportunity in my work, as I am aware writing in English and having the ability to vocalize and articulate these experiences to an international audience are privileges in themselves.

  • What’s one poem you have written you find yourself revisiting, and why?

Dear (Representations of) Hong Kong, definitely. I wrote this poem in a mentorship program organized by HKU’s CEDARS, in which two friends and I had the opportunity to be mentored by Nicholas Wong, one of Hong Kong’s most successful poets and a great guy all around. I love that poem for a few reasons. Firstly, I felt it was necessary to play around with the concept of “representations”. The struggle of accurately representing Hong Kong has been articulated time and time again, especially by PK Leung. It was almost cathartic, in a post-NSL Hong Kong, to be able to present a cynical piece like this.

Another reason I love going back to this poem is because it’s a very angry poem, critical of not just the powers that affect Hong Kong, but also the behaviors of certain Hongkongers themselves. Revisiting it reminds me I should stay angry at the very things I touch on in the poem and not be complicit in them.

  • What are some publications you would recommend to our readers?

Canto Cutie, a literary zine geared towards the broader Cantonese-speaking diaspora. There are quite a number of Hong Kong contributors, especially younger, emerging writers, to keep track of.

Tapping at Glass (Verve Poetry Press, 2023), Cheng Tim Tim’s first pamphlet, is another one. Tim Tim is a wonderful poet and human being who can write about Hong Kong in a way I find fresh, human, and most importantly, relatable to a Hong Kong reader.

There’s also Nicholas Wong’s third collection, Besiege Me (Noemi Press, 2021). Apart from being a treasure trove of Kongish wordplay, it also connects themes such as familial and political trauma in a way that makes you feel not angry, but tender and sore.

  • Outside of writing, what do you enjoy doing?

Spending time with friends, football, and gaming. I also enjoy teaching a lot!